MUSEUMS

Harvard’s museums offer some of the finest collections of their kind in the world. A Harvard identification card provides free access to all University museums. A brief description of the permanent collections of some museums is found below. The Gazette lists special exhibitions and events, and a recording of updated information for the art museums may be reached by calling 617-495-9400. The Art Museums offer free admission to the general public Saturday mornings.

Harvard University Art Museums
Mon.–Sat., 10 am–5 pm; Sun., 1 pm–5 pm
Closed on National holidays
General Information: 617-495-9400
www.artmuseums.harvard.edu

The Art Museums have one of the most extensive university collections in the world and are widely acclaimed for the quality and diversity of their collections. The collections include: European and American paintings, prints, drawings, and photographs, housed at the Fogg; Asian and ancient art, Arab, Persian, and Indian miniatures, and other Islamic art housed at the Sackler; and Central and Northern European art housed at the Busch-Reisinger.

Students are invited to join the Friends of the Harvard Art Museums. The $45 annual fee includes invitations to black-tie exhibition openings and to special events organized by and for students, a subscription to the Calendar, and a 10 percent discount in the Museum Shop.

Fogg Art Museum
32 Quincy Street

Founded in 1891 and opened to the public in 1895, the Fogg Art Museum specializes in the art of Europe and North America in all media (painting, sculpture, prints, drawings, photographs, decorative arts) from the Middle Ages to the present. The Fogg Art Museum also houses classrooms as well as the Phillip A. and Lynn Straus Center for Conservation. The Center, which was the first facility of its kind in the world, offers classes through the Department of History of Art and Architecture for undergraduate and graduate students.

   Wheelchair access via Broadway entrance or through the Fine Arts Library on Prescott Street; call 617-495-4040 for assistance.

Arthur M. Sackler Museum
485 Broadway

Designed by the Pritzker Prize-winning British architect James Stirling and opened in 1985, the Arthur M. Sackler Museum exhibits major collections of ancient, Asian, Islamic, and Indian art. The Sackler, together with faculty offices, seminar rooms, a lecture hall, and a special gallery for temporary exhibitions, house the world’s finest collections of archaic Chinese jades and Japanese surimono, as well as outstanding Chinese bronzes, ceremonial ancient weapons, and Buddhist cave-temple sculpture; Chinese and Korean ceramics; and Japanese woodblock prints, calligraphy, narrative paintings, and lacquer boxes. The Sackler is also home to paintings, drawings, and calligraphy from Iran, India, and Turkey, as well as to one of America’s most important teaching collections of Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and Near Eastern art, with significant holdings of Greek and Roman sculpture, Greek vases, and ancient coins.

   Wheelchair accessible.

Busch-Reisinger Museum
32 Quincy Street

The Busch-Reisinger Museum and its collections of German, Austrian, Swiss, Russian, and Scandinavian art are located in Werner Otto Hall, a modern climate-controlled building adjacent to the Fogg Art Museum. It contains the leading collection of German Expressionist art in North America. Werner Otto Hall opened to the public in late September 1991. Enter the Busch-Reisinger galleries through the Fogg Art Museum. The entrance and reading room of the Fine Arts Library, a Division of the Harvard College Library, is located in Werner Otto Hall. Entry is via Prescott St. or through the Fogg.

Adolphus Busch Hall at 29 Kirkland Street, the former home of the Busch-Reisinger Museum, presently houses plaster casts of medieval art, an exhibition on the history of the Busch-Reisinger Museum, and a famous Flentrop pipe organ, used regularly for Harvard’s organ concert series.

Adolphus Busch Hall is currently open to the public on the second Sunday of each month, from 1 pm to 5 pm. The garden is open to the public on weekdays, May through October, from 11 am to 3 pm. Entry and wheelchair access are on the west side of the building, through the Center for European Studies.

   Wheelchair access to the Busch-Reisinger through the Fogg Art Museum’s Broadway entrance or through the Fine Arts Library on Prescott Street; call 617-495-4040 for assistance.

Harvard Museum of Natural History
Open 7 days a week, 9 am–5 pm
26 Oxford Street, 617-495-3045
www.hmnh.harvard.edu

The Harvard Museum of Natural History (HMNH) presents to the public the collections and research of Harvard University’s three natural history institutions: The Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University Herbaria, and the Mineralogical Museum. The HMNH’s mission is to enhance public understanding and appreciation of the natural world and the human place in it, sparking curiosity and a spirit of discovery in people of all ages. To realize the mission, HMNH draws on the vast resources of the Harvard Faculty and on collections numbering close to 23 million specimens. In an effort to showcase more of the vast natural history collections, the HMNH presents special temporary exhibitions with related programming for the whole family.

The HU Herbaria collection includes the internationally acclaimed Ware Collection of Glass Models of Plants. These "Glass Flowers" are a one-of-a-kind collection of over 4,000 models of plants painstakingly and beautifully crafted in glass by Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka, father and son. The project spanned five decades from 1886 to 1936 and culminated in representations of more than 830 plant species. An extensive research collection of Precambrian fossils, dating back 3.5 billion years, and an historically important collection of economic botany materials are also housed in the Museum building on Oxford Street. For information about botanical collections, research, and archives, visit the Harvard University Herbaria’s website at www.herbaria.harvard.edu or call 617-495-2365.

The Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ) was founded in 1859 by Louis Agassiz. The twelve sub-departments: biological oceanography, entomology, herpetology, ichthyology, invertebrate paleontology, invertebrate zoology, mammalogy, marine biology, mollusks, ornithology, population genetics, and vertebrate paleontology, together comprise one of the world’s most extensive holdings for scientifically described materials (type specimens), geographical range, and historical significance. These collections have gained new relevance as human activity increasingly places species and ecosystems at risk. For information about the MCZ’s archives, call the Mayr Library at 617-495-4576. For information about zoological collections, research, and archives, visit the MCZ website at www.mcz.harvard.edu or call 617-495-2460.

The Mineralogical and Geological Museum maintains internationally important collections of rocks, minerals, ores, and meteorites that support teaching and research, primarily in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. The Museum’s extraordinarily comprehensive mineral collections are featured in both systematic and topical displays in the public galleries. Other specialties include a broadly representative collection of New England minerals, an exhibit of birthstones, and a good selection of meteorites. For more information about mineralogical and geological collections and archives, call 617-495-4758.

   Wheelchair access through basement entrance of the Museum of Comparative Zoology on Oxford Street and through Tozzer Library on Divinity Ave.

The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology
Daily: 9 am–5 pm
11 Divinity Avenue, 617-496-1027
Entrances on Oxford Street and Divinity Avenue
www.peabody.harvard.edu

The Peabody Museum is a world-class collection museum of archaeology and anthropology. With a collection of 1.2 million objects and half a million photographs, the museum maintains eight public galleries and a teaching gallery. The museum makes accessible anthropological objects for teaching, research, and public education, and encourages anthropological discourse through exhibitions, lectures, symposia, and publications. Formal museum-based study is promoted (Anthropology 92r); summer internships are available, and volunteer or work-study students are welcome. The museum also offers a regular series of lectures and public programs, and opens three to four new exhibitions each year. Admission and most public programs are available free to Harvard students..

The collections include North American Indian artifacts, pre-Columbian holdings from Middle America (particularly the Maya) and Peru; pottery collections from North and South America; materials from the Paleolithic and Iron Age cultures of Africa, Asia, and Europe; West African masks and artifacts from Pacific cultures; and ethnographic specimens from Siberia to Tierra del Fuego. The museum maintains written and photographic archives closely related to its collections. For information about the Peabody Museum’s collections and archives, visit the website at www.peabody.harvard.edu or email pmresrch@fas.harvard.edu.

   Wheelchair access through Tozzer Library on Divinity Ave. and through basement entrance of the Museum of Comparative Zoology on Oxford St.

The Semitic Museum
Mon.–Fri., 10 am–4 pm; Sun., 1 pm–4 pm
(closed holiday weekends)
6 Divinity Avenue, 617-495-4631
www.fas.harvard.edu/~semitic

Founded in 1889 by Jacob Henry Schiff, the Semitic Museum is the principal repository for Harvard’s holdings of Near Eastern archaeological artifacts. Its collections represent all of the major cultural areas of the ancient Near East, including Egypt, Israel, Syria-Palestine, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Cyprus and Iran. It houses finds from such sites as Samaria, Shechem, Serabit al-Khadim, Nuzi, Idalion, and Carthage. Access to the research collections is available to qualified scholars by appointment only. The Museum also conducts archaeological research at the ancient seaport of Ashkelon in Israel.

Continuing exhibits at the Semitic Museum are "The Houses of Ancient Israel: Domestic, Royal, Divine," "Ancient Cyprus: The Cesnola Collection," and "Nuzi and the Hurrians: Fragments from a Forgotten Past." There is no charge for admission. Museum shop.

   No wheelchair access; contact the Museum Office for assistance.

Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments
For hours and information, 617-495-2779
Science Center, 1 Oxford Street
www.fas.harvard.edu/~hsdept/chsi/index.html

Located in the new wing of the Science Center, the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments contains one of the finest university collections of its kind in the world. With close to 20,000 artifacts dating from the 15th century to the present, the Collection covers a broad range of disciplines, including astronomy, navigation, horology, surveying, geology, meteorology, mathematics, physics, biology, medicine, chemistry, experimental psychology, and communications. Noteworthy among these are scientific instruments that Harvard purchased in London with the help of Benjamin Franklin in 1764 after a disastrous fire destroyed the college’s philosophical apparatus in the old Harvard Hall.

The historical value of the instruments is greatly enhanced by original documents preserved in the Harvard University Archives and by over 6,500 books and pamphlets in the Collection’s research library that describe the purchase and use of many of the instruments.

Harvard University has been acquiring scientific instruments for teaching and research for over 300 years, but it was not until 1947 that a serious attempt was made to preserve its historical apparatus as a resource for students and faculty. Since the first exhibition of instruments was held in 1959, the Collection has grown rapidly both from within the university and from private donations. The Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments became affiliated with the Department of the History of Science in 1989. Like many other Harvard collections, its primary purpose is teaching and research, providing students and scholars with the opportunity to examine and work with artifacts that have made science possible.

The Collection has two museum galleries (located in Science Center 136 and 251), a research library and instrument study room (Science Center 250), a conservation laboratory, and classroom. Curatorial offices are located in Science Center 251c. Please call ahead for library and gallery hours, 617-495-2779.

   Wheelchair accessible.

Arnold Arboretum
Open Daily, sunrise to sunset
125 Arborway, Jamaica Plain
Information: 617-524-1718
www.arboretum.harvard.edu

The Arnold Arboretum was founded in 1872 as a research institute and living museum dedicated to the study and appreciation of woody plants. Across its 265 acres grows a collection of over 14,000 trees, shrubs, and vines gathered over the past century from the forests of Asia, Europe, and North America. The Arboretum landscape, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Charles Sprague Sargent, is a National Historic Landmark and part of Boston’s Emerald Necklace park system.

Research programs at the Arboretum are based on its rich collections of living woody plants and herbarium specimens and extensive library holdings. The living collections, located in Jamaica Plain, present a synopsis of the woody flora of the North Temperate Zone, while the Arboretum’s dried specimen collection in the Harvard University Herbaria has special strength in tropical Asian materials. Together these collections support studies of plant systematics and evolution, tropical plant ecology and conservation. Through fellowships and direct support the Arboretum encourages undergraduates, graduate students, and visiting scientists to use its collections and participate in its research programs. The Arboretum offers a summer intern program in practical horticulture as well as classroom field studies designed to support science education at the elementary school level. The Arboretum’s Landscape Institute, located in Cambridge, conducts professional training in landscape design preservation, and garden history.

Accessible by public transportation via the MBTA Forest Hills station, the Arboretum offers visitors an extensive schedule of tours and classes providing instruction in botany, horticulture, and landscape history. A permanent exhibit, "Science in the Pleasure Ground," looks back at the Arboretum’s history and reflects on the value of its landscape as a resource for exploring both cultural and natural history. The Arboretum landscape is fully accessible via its paved road and pathway system and is open to the public, free of charge, every day from sunrise to sunset.

   The Hunnewell Visitor Center is wheelchair accessible.

Museum of Fine Arts
465 Huntington Avenue, Boston
Information: 617-267-9300

The Museum of Fine Arts is one of the city’s great cultural resources. It is located on Huntington Avenue in Boston, on the Green ‘E’ line, only a short ride from Harvard Square by the T. Entrance to the Museum is Free to Harvard undergraduates who show their Harvard I.D. cards at the door. For information about hours and exhibits, you may call 617-267-9300. (After reaching the Museum, press 800 for information.)

   Wheelchair accessible.